Fred Hyndman

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Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices - Fred Hyndman - 00:00
My name is Fred Hyndman, and my association with UPEI goes back 50 years,
in fact 51 years for my first association was as a member of the University
and College Planning Committee, which laid out the broad framework of what
the University was hope to become and also the same for Holland College.


Slide - University College Planning Committee - 00:29 
The University College, University slash College Planning Committee was a
committee established by the Government of PEI to formulate plans
consistent with Green Paper which the University, of the Government had
published earlier that year, which advocated that there should be a College
of Applied Arts and Science postgraduate, post high school, post secondary
and as well, that the Government of PEI would only support the public funds
one single university within this Province and that was the policy
statement and the University College Planning Committee was then struck to
put some flesh on that policy and it was drawn from, the committee was
drawn of about, pardon me, the committee comprised about 20 people, drawn
from a broad range of interests, my own appointment came as a result of, I
was actually appointed by the Summerside Chamber of Commerce who were
called upon to nominate someone for that committee and there were, people
sitting on the committee were people associated with Home and Schools,
teachers, school teachers, some university folks, and some college people,
that’s Prince of Wales college people, some public servants, some
business people and so on; it was a very broad ranging thing but my
appointment came as a result of my act of membership in the Summerside
Chamber of Commerce and there I was. It was rather interesting, I was
probably 28 years old, I was very young. So that’s how the committee came
to be and served and did its deliberations for probably 3 or 4 months,
maybe 6, under the direction or the coordination of Dr. Sheffield who was
brought here from Ontario and did a masterful job of drawing from people
their priorities and their dreams and wishes before these two new
institutions, so that was how the University College Planning Committee
came into being, it was never received a great deal of publicity, the press
didn't attend and at the end of the deliberations the Planning Committee
launched a report with the Government of PEI which they followed almost to
the letter.


Slide - The Building a Legacy Campaign - 03:26 
Well I was asked by Regis Duffy and Wade MacLauchlan to and I have utmost
respect for, and they, I was going to say 'browbeat' but that would too
harsh a word but they were very persuasive that I should have a role in
this and given my strong belief that this Province needed a strong
university it was no big reach, it was a commitment of time and energy and
I did accept that Chairmanship of The Building a Legacy Campaign and I'm
very proud to say that it exceeded its goals and I think the grand total
raised was of something over 50 million dollars, which was tangible,
resulted in tangible improvements to the University. As far as my own
family are concerned, we had always been supporters of UPEI financially and
given my role of leadership with that campaign, I did pledge a leadership
gift which some years later in fact, did take place and we've no trouble in
supporting UPEI and Holland College, where we've also been supporting
student aid endowments and funds and so forth. So no, it was no particular
great decision other than realizing that it would take a good bit of time
and energy and I look back on it, I'm very pleased that I was asked and I
was able to do it.


Slide - UPEI Board of Governors - 05:21 
I first was asked to sit on the board, sort of as a pre-introductory offer
I guess but the full intention if I felt I was able to do something, I
would be asked to Chair the Board and I did go to a number of board
meetings and I said to myself, "Oh dear, this board does need some
structure for its deliberations'', as a Board of UPEI once again, it's a
very disparate board, with membership including faculty, students,
Government of PEI and on it goes, I think it's something like 25 members,
it's a very very large board, from a functional point of view probably too
large but representation requirements demanded that. So, the Board had my
understanding had always struggled to function effectively and I did bring
a lot of experience I had in other realms, boards of directors; happy to
say that some changes were made which were deeply appreciated by most
people and the first change was a very simple one, I said "We will put a
time limit on board meetings" and board meetings would start at a given
hour I think it was 7pm and they would end at 9pm and no later because we
had people coming from each end of the Island, driving long distances in
the winter, to come to these board meetings and they would have to get up
and do their work the next day wherever they were. So that was the first
very simple thing I did, and my my it really changed the atmosphere it made
people realize that debate and discussion cannot go on forever and cannot
be repetitive over and over saying the same thing and the result of all of
that was the process of deliberation and decision making was, I think, much
more effective certainly expedited and I'm happy to tell you this, a number
of people said to me upon my retirement from the Board Chair, how important
that had been, a simple matter of having a curfew really, it was as simple
as all that but it did focus people's minds and it was a good thing.


Slide - Search for the Next President - 08:08 
You know, there was also the search for a new President and that's an
exercise quite unique, in my experience and as was customary, I struck a
Board Search Committee and I'm comprising probably, a dozen-fifteen people,
and we met together for many many many hours, we all became good friends
and we had the very important task of choosing and recommending to the
board a replacement for Wade MacLauchlan, who had served here for 12 years
and a very influential leader he was. So as you know and everyone knows,
Alaa was appoint- recommended and appointed and I believe he has since been
re-appointed for a second five year term. That was a very, very interesting
time and I must say, I learned a lot about the workings and the feelings
and the passions of the University and they are not all the same,
conflicting views about all sorts of things it was a great window to the
core of the University for myself, a non-academic person and I do want to
tell you that when the final vote of the Committee was taken, the vote was
unanimous and I think that speaks a great deal to the collaboration and
collegiality that we did enjoy in that committee and subsequent events have
from what I hear, have probably warranted the board's choice in Dr. Alaa
Abd-El-Aziz.


Slide - Atlantic Veterinary College - 10:16 
There is now as you know talk being mooted about, should there be Med
School here you know, that requires a great deal of thought from a whole
lot of people as to whether it's viable and affordable and will it in fact
have any impact on the availability of medical doctors locally. It takes me
back to the great battle to secure the Atlantic Veterinary College for
UPEI, a battle which raged, raged between Provinces of Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island primarily, with New Brunswick and Newfoundland sitting
in on it but it was basically between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Now that...Prince Edward Island prevailed on that occasion and I thought
"Good on them" and the people who that caused that to happen deserve a
great deal of credit, for the Vet College has been a terrific asset to the
University and to the Province and to the Atlantic region, so that's an
example of yes it can be done but you gotta be very very careful because
the Vet College by itself is dependent on a funding agreement between four
Provinces and those things are always risky, risky. Other things the
University will constantly need improvement to its facilities although as I
walk here around this morning I must say they the physical university has
absolutely immeasurably been improved over what it was when I first walked
on this campus. So those are a couple of things I do hope that people don't
stretch too far sometimes and ambition is a wonderful thing, I greatly
respect it but sometimes it can lead one perhaps a little too far.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 12:28 
It was a lot of it I look around and my fingerprints are on and I you know,
that's, I'm proud, especially proud of the Health Sciences Building, which
started life something much smaller than it ended up, pity that it hadn't
been a little more ambitious because from what I understand it's full to
the gills right now, with not just Nursing but also Kinesiology and
Nutrition and various other health related programs and it could've been
even larger, more commodious because others, they ran, apparently, a very
good Nursing Program I understand they had almost five hundred qualified
applicants for this fall, of which they I think they accept 50 or 60 and
the Lord knows health care workers are in great demand, needed, needed. So,
whether that program could grow another stage, perhaps it could but that
was just one example but no, I was heavily involved with the health
services building and I advocated very strongly for it and By Golly because
there were a lots of other competing interests in departments you know,
poor old, the Faculty of Education, they sort of get by-passed a lot and
anyway, I had some friends who...who would josh me about my role as they
understood it but no, the place looks wonderful.